


You're So Pretty Charles

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: Rare Ships on Bingo [21]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Bad Parenting, Christophe Is A Sweetheart, Controlling Brothers, F/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-ship, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27297910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Christophe is there for Sara after Michele pulls a stupid.  The two bond over relatives who tear them down - although in Michele's case, at least it's because he doesn't know any better.Note: Sara and Michele are ~14, Christophe is ~17
Relationships: Michele Crispino & Sara Crispino, Sara Crispino/Christophe Giacometti
Series: Rare Ships on Bingo [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1867507
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8
Collections: Rare Ships!!! on BINGO 2020





	You're So Pretty Charles

**Author's Note:**

> Pairing: Sara Crispino/Christophe Giacometti  
> Prompt: Mirrors

Christophe wrapped his arms around Sara. He’d have loved to go deal with Michele, but right now, Sara was right here and needed him more. Besides, Viktor was here, and he would do a great job of explaining slowly and clearly to Michele that he was being a complete douchebag to his sister. If anything, Christophe felt a little bad about siccing Viktor on Michele after Michele drove his sister running away in tears.

Sara was crying too hard to tell them exactly what Michele had said, but she’d managed to get out enough for them to know that Michele had destroyed his sister’s self-confidence. Viktor would be useless helping her, he had no idea what it was like not to have complete confidence in yourself, but Christophe could. He was mostly over it now, but there were still times where the doubts crept through and he started to feel the old fears of never being good enough or charming enough or worth anything to anyone for anything but his looks or his skates. Knowing Michele, that was likely exactly what Sara was feeling – which meant that Christophe could easily do her some good.

Once Sara’s sobs had subsided a bit, Christophe took her to the mirror. “Sara, love, look in there and tell me what you see.”

Sara sniffled. “God, I look terrible. My hair’s a mess, my eyes are so red, my makeup’s streaked…” She reached for the Kleenex to wipe away some of the mascara staining her cheeks. “I don’t understand what you want me to see, not when I look like this.”

“I want you to see what I see when I look at you.” Christophe put an arm around her, but didn’t interfere with her attempts to clean herself up. “Yes, you are beautiful. You know that, even like this, you are. But that’s not important, not to me. What’s important is that you are fun. You’re sweet. You are someone who I look for at competitions, because if you’re there, the competition is going to be that much better.”

“We don’t compete against each other, Chris,” Sara protested, giving up on scrubbing away the tears without help. Christophe grabbed his makeup bag and handed it to her.

“No, but I meant that having you there means that when we’re not competing, I have a friend there, so it’s more fun. I didn’t mean the actual skating part, although when you’re there, I do skate better because I’m more relaxed when I don’t need to focus, which makes me that much sharper when I do.”

Sara paused again, a tiny smile escaping. “You don’t need to bullshit me, Chris, you have loads of friends. I’m not special.”

“Just because you’re not my only friend or the only one who can help me have fun isn’t a bad thing, you know. I’d say it’s a good thing – look at Mickey, what happens to him when you can’t come to his competition for some reason?” Both of them shuddered. Michele didn’t even bother to pretend he skated for anything but Sara, and if she wasn’t there, it translated so obviously on the ice that he was uninspired. “That doesn’t mean I don’t get excited when I see your name on the competition list or look for you.”

“I know, I know, it’s just… it’s not the same. Not like what Mickey was saying.”

“Let me guess… Mickey said that boys just like you because you’re pretty, and don’t care about anything else?” Sara nodded. “And I’m different because we’ve been friends since we were children, so I knew you before I could see you as a girl?”

“Exactly… although he doesn’t trust you, either, not with the sex on legs thing you’ve got going on,” Sara said. “He just doesn’t know I’m here.”

Christophe snorted. “He’s an idiot. He is right about one thing, any boy who only likes you because you’re pretty doesn’t deserve your time or attention, but he’s wrong that that’s the only reason boys would like you. You’re smart enough to know that, but I know how hard it can be to believe it when you’ve got someone like Mickey telling you otherwise.”

“No offense, but how would you know?” Sara asked. “It’s different for boys.”

“Not that different, really,” Christophe argued. It felt almost like a weight off his chest when he admitted, “My mother used to tell me it was a good thing I was pretty when I made mistakes, because no one would want to be with a stupid boy, and she hated that Dad was enabling my skating because if the pretty didn’t hold up I would need a proper stable real job that paid well. She thought I should be an electrician or a plumber.”

“Oh my.” Sara turned away from the mirror and hugged Christophe tight, and Christophe held on. “I had no idea. By the time we met, your parents were divorced, so I never met your mother. I’m sorry for doubting you.”

“It’s okay. I don’t talk about her much because…. Well. I’m sure you understand.” Sara nodded again. Of course she understood.

“Chris? Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Do you not see me as a girl? Because I was so young when we met?”

Christophe’s first instinct was to lie, to get the hell out of that minefield. Sara deserved better, though. “I do see you as a girl. I still feel a little weird about you being so young, which is not your fault, and I don’t want to cause problems with Mickey that could cause us to not be friends anymore, but in a couple years, I could see it.”

“Fair enough. Thank you.” Sara kissed his cheek and went back to cleaning herself up. “For everything, and especially for not lying to me. You’re an excellent friend.”


End file.
